Helsinki

TOTAL SCORE: 46

As the home of Nokia – one of the first big names to enter the NFC fray – it’s perhaps surprising that contactless hasn’t had a bigger impact in the Finnish capital Helsinki so far. However, the appetite is there, as trials in the city have proven.

Back in 2006, a workforce management programme involving around 100 employees of airport ground handling services provider Northport was rolled out. Nokia 5140i handsets were issued to staff, who could use them to clock on at work and tap tags in the airport after they had completed tasks. This gave Northport continual information on the exact location of all its employees, so it could improve how it assigned jobs.

Another pilot began in 2009, when an estimated 40 employees of payments provider Luottokunta, food services firm Sodexo, Visa Europe and NFC trusted services manager Venyon took part in a six-month NFC trial. Each participant was issued a Nokia 6212 NFC handset to make payments at merchants in Helsinki and at Luottokunta’s offices. Transactions of less than 20 euros were made as simple tap and go payments, while user authentication was required for higher sums.